AdAge this week ran an interesting article on the rise of the widget. Ryan Stewart over on ZDNet and many other have commented as well. So I won't repeat what others have been saying. I think the closing quote sums up the most important point in the article:
In the past three months, according to Alexa, Apple.com's page views per user are down 9%; Comcast.net is down 1%; Dell.com, down 22%; AT&T.com, down 18%; Xbox.com, down 9% and so on as corporate e-bastions begin to experience the same audience fragmentation that is killing old media. "As popular as your site may be," says Kennedy, the reality is that people are actually visiting Yahoo, MySpace, Google and Facebook thousands of times more than they're visiting you."
I think that the days of the destination site are numbered. With more channels and touch points like mobile, social, and widgets the problem now is about making sure your brand is represented with the same brand attributes across many touch points you don't control.
One remaining big question about the current widget focus is when will the user backlash begin to appear? How long until users become tired of installing little plug-ins and platforms?
How frustrated are you by the sheer number of "should I download this update" messages you get from various programs?
How many widgets will people install to their desktops before the are stuck in configuration management heck? Is there a limit to this?
How long until marketing widgets begin to show up in the lists on AdAware and SpyBot - Search and Destroy?
Part of the problem with adoption of Java on the desktop (and web pages) was the complicated install, update, upgrade process that it imposed on users. There is a plethora of available formats that you can use to build your experience including HTML, Flash, Flex, Silverlight, Java, and other rich media. On top of formats, there are many delivery mechanisms such as desktop installs, system trays and menus, toolbars, portals like Google or Yahoo and social sites like Facebook or LinkedIn.
Despite companies like Sprout that allow you to build widgets without any code and Buddy Media who can build widgets quickly and easily it is still very difficult to build a true cross platform widget. This leads to proliferation of technologies and widgets. Each one can have it's own challenges for updating the code and the content and installation (maybe requiring permissions, plug-ins or other paraphernalia to make them work).
Interestingly enough, this month's Harvard Business Review has a great article about user defaults entitled "Nudge Your Users Towards Better Choices" or how defaults can hurt, help, or not help your brand image in the eyes of your customers. The key point in the article is that the defaults you add to your software (widget or otherwise) really effect the tone and experience that your brand is portraying to your users. How often do you consider defaults in your creative brainstorming or concept phases? Think about it ...
Dean McRobie
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Strategists & Planners
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At Sprout, we are doing our best to create a platform that works cross-browser as best we can. With any web based technology you run into these problems.
Sprout Builder is an enabling technology for those who easily want to create interactive content without any programing experience. We have run into the problem of adblockers disabling our content (in the past) but as a platform, people are using it to create much more than advertisements. They are using it to create elements on their web site that have interactivity, mashups, utilities and more.
To your point about defaults, I think this rings true in the traditional widget marketing model. Take a movie marketing campaign for example, the studio works with an agency to put out the "official" movie widget and hopes that fans come and grab/share it with their friends and social networks. What if this widget is boring or provides no value and the defaults don't work? It won't travel very far.
Why not let your fans and users create that widget around your branded assets along with some of their own (UGC)? Won't they be more inclined to share it? The idea is that you are letting your fans work with the defaults (branded assets) and insert their own content so it is personalized and resonates with the fan. This is what Sprout is calling "creative engagement marketing".
Joey
Posted on December 1, 2008 14:40
I regularly stress to our clients the need to make their content "work" beyond their own website. Because online traffic is trying to find places where they can engage with your brand on their terms, not yours. To play off the old brand mantra: Your web presence isn't where you say it is, it's where they say it is. That includes the non-brand-site and non-widget engagement of Facebook and the like; and it includes specialized search engines — like Addictomatic.com — where "they" can get your content without hitting your site or using your widget.
Will the destination website meet it's demise? I don't think so. Will the backlash to plug-ins hush the growing widget noise? I don't believe it will. But companies will have to stop looking at either as a magic-bullet-channel, and start using them for what they are intended: focused communication to the audience that loves you, and wants to meet you where you live.
John Lane
Blog: http://centerline.net/blog
Twitter: @jvlane257
Posted on December 17, 2008 13:32
I regularly stress to our clients the need to make their content "work" beyond their own website. Because online traffic is trying to find places where they can engage with your brand on their terms, not yours. To play off the old brand mantra: Your web presence isn't where you say it is, it's where they say it is. That includes the non-brand-site and non-widget engagement of Facebook and the like; and it includes specialized search engines — like Addictomatic.com — where "they" can get your content without hitting your site or using your widget.
Will the destination website meet it's demise? I don't think so. Will the backlash to plug-ins hush the growing widget noise? I don't believe it will. But companies will have to stop looking at either as a magic-bullet-channel, and start using them for what they are intended: focused communication to the audience that loves you, and wants to meet you where you live.
John Lane
Blog: http://centerline.net/blog
Twitter: @jvlane257
Posted on December 17, 2008 13:34